Page 37 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 9 December 2008
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our recognition and support, and I thank them for what they do. I make special mention of the RSL, Rotary, Legacy, and the National Brain Injury Foundation, with whom I have had some association lately.
I come to the Assembly as a member of the Liberal Party and consider myself a liberal by the definition of the word. I follow the ideal of Sir Robert Menzies, who said, “We took the name ‘Liberal’ because we were determined to be a progressive party, willing to make experiments, in no sense reactionary but believing in the individual, his rights and his enterprise, and rejecting the socialist panacea.”
I am enthused by the rejuvenation that has occurred in the Liberal Party at this election and I am very proud to be a member of a party that is well led, is united and is focused on the task of opposition. We will keep the government honest and accountable and we will provide the people of Canberra with a very credible alternative government.
Although Canberra has so much to offer, the Stanhope-Gallagher Labor government has a record of neglect and mismanagement that has left many in the community wishing that they could retreat to what they consider were Canberra’s better days. I am confident, however, that better days are before us and that, despite the toils and troubles that any city confronts, our future will be bright and full of opportunity. Our responsibility here is to identify those opportunities and to deliver better outcomes for the people of Canberra.
My vision for our future is a vibrant, progressive and sustainable city where our health care, our schools, our roads, our public transport and our economy are, once again, the envy of the rest of Australia. When I compare our future with that faced by many of the people I have worked with in such places as Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Iraq there is no doubt that we sometimes do not appreciate how good we have it.
In many of the places I have served with the Army, freedoms were only recently won and at great cost in both wealth and in human lives. In part, as a result of this experience, I treasure the individual freedoms that we have, and I have a moderate’s view of the world. I reject zealots and extremists at both ends of the political spectrum.
I have great respect for all religious faiths and I believe in a secular society where men and women of all races and religion and those without religious beliefs are treated equally. I believe that a person’s morality is measured by their actions rather than by their creed.
I support individual freedoms over collectivism and I believe in choice. I believe in an individual’s right to choose the school that best meets the needs of his child or her child. I believe in an individual’s right to negotiate with his employer as part of a union or as an individual.
I support a woman’s right to choose, and I am encouraged to serve an Assembly where nearly 50 per cent of its members are women. I believe in advancing the rights of gay and lesbian people.
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